IF YOU ever wanted to be in a place where the food dissolves all boundaries, where fresh ingredients translate into healthy dish-outs and where the taste leaves an indelible mark on your palate, then head straight for The Fox. Or so the Gurgaon-based resto-bar claims. Hosting a Pakistani food festival till this Saturday, the multi-cuisine restaurant definitely manages to dissolve boundaries. You not only manage to cross the LOC but also go beyond. After all, the regional styles of Baluchistan, Punjab, the North West Frontier Province and Sindh have been influenced by Indian techniques to the same extent as they have been by Iran and Afghanistan. Connoisseurs from the walled city would immediately vouch for that, after seeing Haleem, a dish made by mixing cracked wheat and shreds of lamb with special condiments and spices, or for that matter Nihari Gosht which is a thin lamb curry. The familiarity, however, isn't entirely acknowledged by the taste buds. Not only are the titivations and garnishes ignored but the tenderness that one expects in a Nihari is lacking. Still, the dish preserves the spices and the taste and is probably as close to the famed Javed's Nihari of Karachi as you can get.

The magic of the frontier cuisine "bowls you over" once you feel the pieces of grilled chicken that go by the name of Nawabi Chooza, melting in your mouth. Talking of bowling, you might choose to savour the soft, delicate, multani style patties known as Inzamami Aloo Tikki just in case nutmeg enriched minced meat curry with chunks of lamb, known as Shoaib Keema Chatpata Mutton, is taking time to arrive.

Vegetarians, and those on diet, however, are offered precious little in the Pakistani platter. But the Indian and continental menus come to their rescue. If novelty is what brings the flavour for you, then you might try the Indonesian dish Oseng Oseng Campur which is a mixture of stir fried vegetables in hot garlic sauce or Teppan Yaki, which is somewhat of a Japanese equivalent of the Indonesian dish. The Veg Manchurian, a supposedly Chinese dish, also makes its appearance on the exhaustive, though not the most authentic menu which has something for everyone.

Complement it with Aperitifs, Spirits, Shooters or just plain mocktails from the equally exhaustive beverage menu and the meal wouldn't still leave an indelible mark but would definitely be memorable.

Have a healthy puff...

BELIEVE IT or not but the search for a healthy alternative to the addiction of tobacco seem to be over now. The quitting of tobacco in all these long years had only a three per cent success rate. But now with pioneering work of SEHAT Foundation, the rays of hope for major breakthrough seem to be round the corner.

The Sehat, which stands for Safer, Effective, Healthier Alternatives To Tobacco, made its debut in New Delhi recently. Conceived, conceptualised and created by Dalmia Group, the foundation's Founder Chairman, Sudershan Banerjee says SEHAT will not merely ask the consumer to quit or give up the habit but will offer safer, healthier alternatives to tobacco smoking and tobacco chewing while simultaneously addressing the suffering caused by Asthma and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease. Dalmia Centre for Research and Development, which is doing all the necessary research work to integrate traditional Indian Ayurvedic knowledge with modern science, is presently offering some alternatives like Chabaaza, a pan-flavoured gumlet and Vardan, a bidi. Banerjee says Chabaaza is made of Ayurvedic products and is an ideal substitute of gutka and pan masala which is made of deadly Areca Nut and Magnesium Carbonate.